The Strength Switch
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  • Published: 29 May 2017
  • ISBN: 9781925324426
  • Imprint: Ebury Australia
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $34.99

The Strength Switch

How the New Science of Strength-Based Parenting Helps Your Child and Teen to Flourish

Formats & editions
Tr. Paperback
29 May 2017
EBook
29 May 2017
Audiobook
18 Feb 2020
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Unlock your children’s potential by helping them build their strengths.

'As parents, we often obsess about fixing our children’s weaknesses and neglect the importance of developing their strengths. This book is full of concrete ideas on how to change that.' Adam Grant, bestselling author of Think Again and Hidden Potential

This game-changing book reveals the extraordinary results of focusing on our children’s strengths rather than always trying to correct their weaknesses. By showing us how to throw the ‘strength switch,’ Dr. Lea Waters demonstrates how we can help our children build resilience, optimism, and achievement.

A Strength-Based Approach
As a strength-based scientist for more than 20 years, Waters has seen how this approach enhances self-esteem and energy in both children and teenagers – and how parents find it an exciting and rewarding way to raise them.

In The Strength Switch, Dr. Lea Waters shows you how to:

Interact with Your Children in New Ways
Discover new and enriching ways to engage with your children.

Discover Your Children's Strengths and Talents
Identify and nurture your child’s unique strengths.

Use Positive Emotions as a Resource
Harness the power of positive emotions to support your child’s development.

Build Strong Brains
Learn techniques to help develop your child’s cognitive strengths.

Deal with Problem Behaviour
Address and manage challenging behaviours effectively.

Talk About Difficult Situations and Emotions
Communicate openly about tough topics with confidence.

"Practical tips for parents from the wise and wonderful Lea Waters! So many parents, including me, struggle to translate scientific research into real-world strategies. This terrific book not only helps us understand ourselves and our children better but also makes that understanding actionable!" - Angela Duckworth, PhD, New York Times bestselling author of Grit.
  • Published: 29 May 2017
  • ISBN: 9781925324426
  • Imprint: Ebury Australia
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $34.99
Categories:

About the author

Lea Waters

Dr Lea Waters is a psychology researcher at the University of Melbourne, where she has worked for over 20 years. She is the founding Director of the Centre for Positive Psychology, holds the Gerry Higgins Chair in Positive Psychology, and is a registered psychologist with the AHPRA and a member of the Australian Psychological Society. She is recognised as a world expert on positive parenting, positive education and positive organisations and has affiliate research positions with Cambridge University and the University of Michigan. Dr Waters is the President-Elect of the International Positive Psychology Association and has been listed in the Marquis Who’s Who in the World since 2009. She was listed as one of Australia’s Top 100 Women of Influence by the Financial Review and Westpac Bank.

Dr Waters is on the Board of the South Australian Health and Medical Research Board and is the Ambassador for Australia’s Positive Education Schools Association. She featured in the ABC TV documentary Revolution School and is regularly featured in newspapers and on radio. Her TEDx talk focuses on how we can spread positive messages through social media.

Her Positive Detective school program is being used in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Finland, Ghana, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand. Her Visible Wellbeing™ program is being run in schools across Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, Tasmania, Queensland and Victoria in both the state and independent education systems.

portrait photo of Lea Waters

Praise for The Strength Switch

As parents, we often obsess about fixing our children’s weaknesses and neglect the importance of developing their strengths. This book is full of concrete ideas on how to change that.

Adam Grant, PhD, New York Times bestselling author of Originals and Give and Take

The Strength Switch gives parents hope that they can build their children’s creativity. By sharing parts of her own story of overcoming hardship, and presenting the latest science of positive psychology, Dr. Waters not only inspires parents to bring out the best in their children, but she inspires us all to be the best version of ourselves. A wise and warm book!

Scott Barry Kaufman, PhD, co-author of Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind

Lea Waters points to a needed shift in the way we are parenting our children and teenagers. The Strength Switch rejects the current fad that drowns children in self-esteem and replaces it with research-based practices to help parents identify and develop their children’s best qualities. Inspiring and timely.

Robert Biswas-Diener, PhD, author of The Upside of Your Dark Side

This book will help you do something groundbreaking for your children – shift your view to see their best and help them develop their unique strengths. Follow the wisdom here and you will bring deep, lasting benefit to not only your child but yourself. Thanks to Dr. Lea Waters, strengths-based parenting has arrived!

Ryan M. Niemiec, Psy.D., author of Character Strengths Interventions

Lea Waters’ expertise, hope, and heart shine through the pages of The Strength Switch. She deftly draws on the science of positive emotions to help readers appreciate the vital role positivity plays in moving through hard times. This book will be a game-changer for unlocking your child’s potential.

Barbara L. Fredrickson, PhD, author of Positivity and Love 2.0

Discover more

Book List
Parenting guides

Hints, tips, dos and don’ts for human parents.

Article
Elements of strength

Lea Waters offers some signposts to identifying your children’s strengths.

Article
Accentuate the positive

Lea Waters’ tips on talking about your child’s weaknesses.

Video
The Strength Switch – Thankful Thursdays

Lea Waters discusses the practice of being thankful on Thursdays in her new book THE STRENGTH SWITCH.

Video
The Strength Switch – Flipping the Switch

Unlock your children’s potential by helping them build their strengths with Lea Waters' THE STRENGTH SWITCH.

Video
The Strength Switch

What are your children's strengths? Lea Waters' new book, THE STRENGTH SWITCH, will show you how to unlock your children’s potential by helping them build their strengths.

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